So it started with a bang as four days after retirement, my daughter and her husband went to Hawaii and I was to take care of things with the house and kids and pets! So that kept me running between our two homes and I was feeling pretty tired by the end of the day.
The following month, precisely the 5th of February, my mom called around 3:00 am and said she wasn't feeling well, so Spence and I ran over, taking her house keys along with us. I say rather facetiously that I never can get her keys to work or her lock, but this time, the door opened just like it should. My mom was sweaty and pale and it only took us a minute to know that 911 was the way to go. We are lucky as the paramedics are maybe a block and a half away. After they took vitals, it was on the way to the Mountain Point Hospital in Lehi. We followed the ambulance by car and she was quickly admitted. After a little while the cardiologist told us she needed an angiogram. This showed she had a 95% blockage in the main heart artery. A stint was placed to open things up.
Three or four days later she was moved to rehab, nearby, and she stayed there for two or three weeks. Again I found myself going between her house and mine, taking care of her house, her needs at the rehab center, and taking the dog in and out, and feeding the dog and her bird as well as giving the dog it's heart meds. It was quite the time. Here is a picture of her leaving the hospital after her treatment there.
So needless to say, my first two months of retirement were not what I had expected. You know, you hear of the retirement vacation trip, etc, etc. Nope didn't happen for me...Oh well.
One fun event was to meet part of Jamie's mother-in-law's family when they came to visit her. Here is Lance and his daughter's visiting with Arden. It was a dream come true for Arden. I was able to find her biological family after a long disappointing search. When it happened it happened fast and furious! I was thrilled to be able to have helped this reunion of mother and daughter. I think that was wonderful.
Two days after my mom's heart attack, I made a huge discovery, which I have already written about in my genealogy blog. Here is the link to that amazing find. Needless to say, the research after that kept me working at home, in between checking up on my mom, and such.
Also during that time, I had what I thought was a really bad sinus infection. It felt like one and made sense, because I have an issue with my sinus and any dairy products. Being that it was a bit after Christmas, a time of chocolate and other dairy-type goodies, I was sure that was it and went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. They agreed with what I thought it was. Time went on, and I still had some pressure, but when it comes to my sinus issues, I just have to deal with it at times. Finally I got a swelling on my gum and went to the dentist. Had an abscessed tooth under a crown. So off to the endodontist. I had lost a lot of bone and tissue, so there was a lot of damage. The root canal was done through the crown and took two long appointments to complete. Then back to the regular dentist to fill in the crown's hole. It still hurt for quite a while. But is pretty good now. But that started a summer full of dental issues for our family. Spence had a toothache, too. Needed a wisdom tooth extracted. After that still more pain. Another wisdom tooth, then our son-in-law Jake, had a root canal and crown. Then Spencer had yet another tooth ache and yet another root canal and crown. Ugh. will this ever end! Just recently my poor mom had a root canal under a broken crown which got infected into the gum line and yeah. Let's just all get dentures, right???? But when Brian went to the dentist just a few days ago, he only needed a cleaning. I guess he was the lucky one this time!
In October I took my mom to my eye doctor, as she complained that for the last three check-ups, her eye doctor didn't find much to change in her prescription and even specifically when she asked about what he had checked her for, there was still no big change, yet she knew her eyesight was getting noticeably worse. So when she went to my eye doctor, he noticed right away cataracts and glaucoma. So two more surgeries and lots of trips back and forth to appointments. So her doctor had missed 2 very important problems...Kind of makes ya a bit unhappy, to say the least.
We did have some fun things happen, too. In July we went vehicle shopping and got a new truck.
We traded our beautiful Sienna mini-van for the new truck. I can't remember ever feeling so sad about leaving a car behind. I didn't realize how attached I was to it. It took us to Disneyland with the grand kids and lots of other places. It had all the extras in it and was spotless inside and out. But we found as the grand kids were getting older, we saw less and less of them as they started doing their "own thing". So it was time to trade her in. And this is what we got:
You can tell who was really happy about this one!
Yeah, he was pretty happy, but wished we had bought the Tundra, instead because it's a bit bigger and powerful than this one. But too wide for our garage doors. Oh well, it works.
Then about a week later, we made another purchase.
It's a Winnebago Micro-mini. It is nice. Sleeps four and has some nice little features. But along with the trailer, comes a lot of extras to buy, Including an outdoor TV to watch while in the RV parks, in the evening under the canopy. Ha ha! yes, it's also a whole new learning curve, leveling, hooking things up, backing the truck up, just right. But we are learning it and have good teachers in the neighborhood, with lots more experience with all that. Right now she's covered and winterized till spring. Then let's go!
Here are a couple of views of the inside.
It has a nice slide-out which gives more space. And has good storage.
So she has only been on one trip, but it was lots of fun going to Heber and Midway for the Swiss Days. We had a good time there! The RV park in Heber is top class! We loved it. Even if we had the smallest rig in the park. Well, not really, but close. But hey, it was fun and they have lots of amenities, we had a nice neighbor and we learned a few things and that was great.
And we had a family baptism, Grayson turned 8! And we all came to celebrate, of course. All the grand kids were baptized in the church Jamie and Brian were baptized in. Makes it special.
But what made things super special was that Tyson was able to baptize his little bro! Proud of both of them.
And of course, Jamie made the luncheon super special!
And of course, the summer had lots of baseball. But for Tyson, no more. He went to Alaska to play in June after breaking his ankle. Ouch! So that made things rough.
And to Logan to the temple. It was on my bucket list for about the last two years!
We went to a fun restaurant for breakfast and saw this pretty girl!
It was a very tasty place to eat and apparently it was the place to go for all the Logan locals! And while there, I had a cute moment with the ketch-up bottle.
Heinz is my late daddy's name and I liked this!
And we had football with Grayson every Tuesday evening in Orem. And of course, Logan had football too!
We did take a 3 day trip with Logan to Mesquite for football. It was lots of fun and the break from the cold was very much appreciated! However, lots of his games were at night and night started at about 4:00 pm. the minute the sun went down, it was freezing! I think we have been here three times now.
And they did well! I think third place?
And the grand kids got grandpa back into fishing. Yeah, he goes back and forth on his interests, but that's Spencer!
And of course, cheerleading competitions were fun to watch!
And we are always thankful for the holidays and the times we get to spend together!
And now the end of the year is quickly approaching. I hope we will all have a wonderful 2019!
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